Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Loving Animals

My cousin lets me come over and use his wireless internet occasionally. I was over at his house last night and he was watching the movie "Red" about a man living in a small town in America who had his dog shot by a young man out with his young male buddies, who did it for no good reason.

The young man was obviously sick and the movie seemed to focus too much on the death of the animal and not on the fact that the boy held the man up at gunpoint and was trying to rob him, which is a felony. The sheer cruelty of shooting the man's dog, just for pleasure meant that the boy is slated for a life of crime, possibly killing people also for pleasure. But the movie didn't seem to be making that point very well.

I was saying how cruelty to animals leads to cruelty to people. My cousin agreed, but he said kindness to animals, in the reverse, does not guarantee good character in people. Hitler cared about his dog.

I was thinking about how animals were given to us by God for our enjoyment and are easy to care for and easy to love. As my cousin said, animals are easy to love, but people are not, and people are more important.

This is coming from someone who has loved animals like they were people. I love animals with a passion. It's good to love animals, but it is imperative that we love people!